Sarah Marshall

A Sheffield mum, who threatened a man with a machete in the street following a booze-fuelled altercation, has received a suspended prison sentence.

Sheffield Crown Court heard how in the hours running up to the incident on January 22 this year, Kelly Garrity met the complainant along with some other friends for a few drinks.

After a few drinks Garrity and the rest of the group went back to her home in Harborough Avenue, Manor.

Prosecuting, Beverley Tait, told the court how after the complainant started acting in an 'inappropriate' manner an altercation broke out between him and Garrity, 30, which then spilled out on to the street.

She said: "The complainant and the defendant were seen arguing on the street.

"She was heard to be shouting and screaming with a machete - which has been recovered - that she was waving around.

"She was seen running down the street towards the complainant, waving the machete at him shouting: 'you silly b******'.

The complainant fled the scene, and the police were called by a neighbour.

Garrity told police she had threatened the complainant with the machete, but said the argument had come about after the complainant began 'smashing up' her home, the court was told.

She said the complainant had taken the machete from where she keeps it in the garden and had begun threatening her with it - and it was after she managed to take it from him that the argument was moved on to the street.

Defending, Jim Baird, told the court that the incident was out of character for Garrity and that social services regarded her to be a 'good mum' to her three children, who are aged between two and 12-years-old.

He said: "From time to time, when her grandmother is looking after the children, she goes out and tends to binge drink and she accepts that she takes drugs as well.

"It was as a consequence of all night drinking and taking drugs that the matters in front of Your Honour happened."

The court was told that the complainant withdrew his complaint and refused to co-operate with police.

Garrity pleaded guilty to one count of threatening a person with an offensive weapon in a public place at an earlier hearing.

Judge Michael Slater sentenced Garrity to six months in prison, suspended for 12 months, and ordered her to complete a 30-day rehabilitation activity requirement.